The world we lived in..
TweetMy entire family rejoiced my birth. Our family is one big united with all uncles, aunts, grandparents living together. We are a simple living group. We do what is needed for bare survival. We are not greedy and do not have a luxurious lifestyle. We are a colony now going about lives.
We are what others call a Eusocial group.This means that we are a very social group.We are not individualists or selfish ones.We believe in helping each other with specific members of our community doing what suits the group best.We are not taught team work.We are born team members and die team members.It is in our DNA, trust me!!. Our team or colony is usually in hundreds at a minimum if not more. We also have colonies with several million individuals.
We also have a natural talent for science and engineering.I would not be boasting if I said we build some coolest architectures without any training the world has seen.In fact when we make our structures to ensure there is proper air-conditioning to all parts without use of any energy. We also sometimes have gardens in which we grow food for our consumption inside our structures.We have some natural mechanisms built to protect ours selves from predators with some smart techniques to cover our tracks.We could definitely take a class or two to the espionage agencies all over the world.As I said above some classify our society as casteist with many being assigned to do only those jobs.But let me tell we have our benefits and reasons for doing the same.
For such a big colony with many members we are mostly vegetarian.We are also very conscious in our preferences of food.There is hardly any living plant that we eat.Most of the time we eat and live off dead plants.There hardly has been a case of we cutting trees for our survival or comfort.The plants that we eat are only for hunger they are neither for comfort or taste.We do this just for our basic survival.I repeat again it mostly dead plants.We do not kill living plants also for our food.
We were leading our lives in a peaceful manner when the fateful dark day arrived.It was a day as usual we were going about our work them suddenly we hear a big hissing sound from the skies above
us.We looked up to see a shower or rain to descend on us.This was with a cloud forming fast.We were bracing our selves for rain when the rain drops started hitting our skins.There was a distinct smell which began to cause irritation to our eyes and ears.It started burning our skins.It dawned on us that the chemical war was declared on us.We realized that the aliens had started this attack.We do not know why they are doing this to us.They are attacking us unprovoked.But we are not strong enough to fight them.I see my family choking and dying in front of me.Everybody is running all over the place trying o cover.But the gases are so powerful that they are sneaking into our underground tunnels.Alas!! we have no defense against the aliens.My eyes are beginning to darken and am losing consciousness.
The only thought running in my mind as I breathe my last breadth -“Why us, my family what harm have we done to others other than living our life the way we were supposed too…………”
“OK, maam the job is done.Those termites are gone you don’t have to worry about your leather TV couch anymore”-the terminator said with a big smile on his victorious face to his customer as he walked away from the couch towards the main door.
Please do see this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGaT0B__2DM by Sir David Attenborough.
Superb story Kumaran. I am reminded of some twilight zone episodes. Good work.
Great story and a great video. Thanks for sharing…
Nice story Kumaran. The video is also very good. Didn’t guess what you it was about ..
Really nice story Kumaran! I enjoyed reading.. and then I read it again.. Fun.
Excellent perspective Kumaran. Always wondered whenever people get hysterical seeing ants, insects in the garden. Does our patta means we own everything. Where does our rights end and the insects/other creatures begin.
Had a tiff with the wifey couple of weeks ago when she put some salt on a leech in the backyard.
My argument was it was harmless and it is cruel to go out of the way to kill it, wifey says it has potential to cause harm, I countered by saying it was not inside the house, wifey gave a queer look and said you have too much time on your hands.
End of argument. Leech 0 Humans 1.
Great short story! A couple of paras in, I was wondering what it was about…thanks for sharing!
@Sukumar. Thanks for the encouraging words. This is a good ego booster. 🙂 Twilight zone and my kirukkal(scibling)
@Jmurali – Glad you liked it. Thanks.
@Ananth – Thanks.
@Sundara – Hope you read it again because it was nice and not because it was confusing. 🙂
@Kannan – Very nice experince you shared. Yes you lines are source of my insipiration for my next blog. more like a epilogue to this post.
@Arvind – Thanks for comments.
Great post Kumaran. I checked David Attenborough’s series on Termites. Awesome. And your storytelling is very touching. Do you think anything will slowdown human impact on nature?
Thanks Vamsi for comments. I don’t think so unfrotunately. We are too engulfed in it. For example 3rd world want to enjoy SUVs now. Look at the big cars in Indian roads. The thinking seems to be like west you had your days now it mine please dont spoil it.
Maybe we could slow down.
Another thought that comes to my mind may this is evolution. Dinosours had to die life went on. Humans will mutate or die life will go on. This statement looks very pessimistic but I dont mean it that way. I am trying to be realistic I think.. 🙂
Kumaran,
Great post. It had a “Sixth Sense” type of surprise to it in the end. Like Sundar, I had to go back and re-read again to see how I could have missed it the first time.
Nice touch.
hi Sreedhar,
Thanks for the enocuraging comments.